Deutsche Beteiligungs AG is a successor to Deutsche Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH (DBG). Following its foundation in 1965, DBG entered into investments exclusively through funds.

DBG Fonds I and DBG Fonds II were structured as open funds without fixed terms and a fixed fund size. They primarily invested in German mid-market companies with the objective of enabling growth through an appropriate equity base what were mostly family-owned companies. The funds were chiefly interested in ongoing distributions disbursed by their investments and were capitalised exclusively by commitments from the partners in DBG, later – as was the case for DBG Fonds III, raised in 1998 – from the then group of principal shareholders of Deutsche Beteiligungs AG.

DBG Fonds III involved a change in DBAG’s strategy: for the first time, DBAG invested in management buyouts alongside this fund. From November 1996 to October 2001, the fund invested in nine companies in Germany and Austria. The fund took minority positions in the form of growth financing, and it structured management buyouts, taking majority interests. October 2007 saw the realisation of the fund’s final investment.